Sponsored by OSS.Net, Inc. Visit http://www.oss.net/IOP for additional information.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE AND HUMAN CHOICE

An Invitational Convergence to
Define and Advance the Field of Collective Intelligence
15 January 2007
10 am - 4 pm
followed by public engagements into the evening
Hyatt Fair Lakes, Virginia, USA

Our times are challenging and filled with possibility --

and we who are working with collective intelligence
could have a profound impact on what happens next.

Collective intelligence has given humanity unprecedented power --

and the narrow applications of that power have brought us
great suffering and the prospect of planetary catastrophe.
But now that very threat is arousing commitment worldwide,
unprecedented in its scope and intensity, to turn ourselves around,
to redesign our systems, and to reclaim the wisest of our traditions.
With this and with new tools, the urgency of these times might yet bring forth
radically better forms of civilization, both humane and sustainable.

These times also bring the gift of diversity,

with creative responses from all fields of practice,
walks of life, and corners of the earth,
converging on the space of a livable future.
We seek to do our part.

This January gathering seeks to convene diverse approaches to collective

intelligence to catalyze their powerful synergies. It will tap the visions, research,
innovations, and practices engaging collective intelligence (CI) on many fronts:
* scientific research
* group and community well-being and development
* business and social innovation
* computer software and networking
* the open source movement
* intelligent social systems
* dialogue and deliberation
* next stage democracy
* conscious evolution
* global security
* virtual communities and social media
* multi-sectoral projects
* regional and "global brain" intelligence
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This will be an invitational gathering, not open to the public. We are specifically
inviting you to join us for a day of collective thought with 20-40 other respected
practitioners, innovators, and thought leaders from a diversity of fields and perspectives.
This gathering is explicitly intended for leaders in CI who wish to foster greater
coherence in Collective Intelligence as a field of study and practice, and to expand its
role in human affairs. We want to explore each other's perspectives on collective
intelligence -- and see how we may each be enhanced thereby -- and seek
breakthroughs and synergies that can help meet global challenges.

This day-long meeting is a working session, the in-person phase of a longer

process. We invite all participants to join us in optional online and teleconference
explorations before and after the face-to-face gathering, to clarify the field and this effort
to convene it. We will offer at least one post-conference collective public announcement
describing our efforts and framing the field in more coherent form. This will enable the
world and the field, itself, to apprehend the field of Collective Intelligence more clearly.

Before, during, and after the January conference, we intend to make significant
progress on such inquiries as the following, according to the interests and energy of the
participants:

1. LANGUAGING - What cross-disciplinary vocabularies and integral perspectives can

help us work better together and communicate about the field of CI as a whole?

2. MAPPING - What are the varieties of collective intelligence and what fields, ideas,
professions, etc., are relevant to CI -- even if they don't speak of themselves in those
terms? How do these all relate to each other?

3. DEFINING - How can we best define the phrase "collective intelligence", so that it
expresses both the essence of our individual approaches and the broad extent of the
field as a whole?

4. VALUING - What value would be added if CI became more coherent and visible, both
as a capacity and as a field of study and practice? How do we articulate its benefits to
the world?

5. RESEARCHING - What research questions, if pursued well, would make the most
difference in furthering the field and capacity of CI in the world?

6. STRATEGIZING - What initiatives and mutual learning partnerships might we co-

create or catalyze, that would advance the field and its ability to address collective
problems, including major global challenges like climate change, resource depletion,
terrorism, extreme wealth disparities, emerging "superbugs", and other major
challenges?
Sponsored by OSS.Net, Inc. Visit http://www.oss.net/IOP for additional information. 3

To build an interdisciplinary learning community on this subject, we encourage (but do

not require) a commitment of three or more hours per week from acceptance through
March 2007, at which point we will collectively re-evaluate this initiative and our
individual participation in it.

For those interested and able to make time in their schedule, we will also create
opportunities for organized informal face-to-face conversations during one or more days
before the gathering.

Papers written for and following the conference will be edited into a book, to be
published in 2007.
The costs associated with this conference have been kept to a functional minimum. You
are asked to pay your own transportation and accommodation costs and to contribute
$100 towards the shared costs of the gathering.

You are one of a very select group being invited to participate in this
conversation. Please look over the initial invitation list below and the attached
materials and let us know by October 20th if you will be able to join us at the gathering
and/or would like to participate in discussions before or after the January event about
the field and this effort to bring it together.

We would value your comments on the attached working documents. We intend

them as starting points for the co-creation of an inclusive, evolving "source document"
that can guide our collective realization of this field. Tell us: What do you think is wrong
or missing in them? With your help, we hope to have a much better version by the end
of our gathering in January.

And if you have ideas or resources to improve the collective intelligence of this
undertaking, itself, please share them with us.

Feel free to contact any of the coordination team for further information or to share your
views and resources.

Thank you for the contributions you are already making to the deepening and
realignment of our collective intelligence and for considering joining us in this process.
We look forward to hearing from you.
Sincerely,

The Collective Intelligence Convergence Coordination Team

Tom Atlee
George Por
Sheri Herndon
Olen Gunnlaugson
Nancy Glock-Grueneich
Susan Cannon
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INVITED PARTICIPANTS

John Abbe - Process Arts, Center for Group Learning

http://www.ourpla.net
Verna Allee - Value Net Works, The Future of Knowledge
http://vernaallee.com
Tom Atlee - Co-Intelligence Institute, The Tao of Democracy
http://www.co-intelligence.org
Mark Beam - Collective Intelligence
http://www.collectiveintelligence.net/aboutUs.php
Sherrin Bennett - Interactive Learning Systems, "Mindshift: Strategic Dialogue for
Breakthrough Thinking"
http://www.theworldcafe.com/Mindshift.pdf
Howard Bloom - The Global Brain
http://www.howardbloom.net
Juanita Brown - The World Cafe
http://www.theworldcafe.com
Susan Cannon - Pacific Integral
http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon3.html#cannon
Sheryl Erickson - Collective Wisdom Initiative
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org
Betty Sue Flowers - Presence, LBJ Presidential Library and Museum
http://www.presence.net/authors.html#flowers
Jerome C. Glenn - 2006 State of the Future
http://www.acunu.org
Nancy Glock-Grueneich - HIGHER EDge
http://www.higheredge.org
Olen Gunnlaugson - Trifoss Coaching
http://www.trifosscoaching.org
Craig Hamilton - What is Enlightenment? magazine (past editor)
http://www.wie.org/j25/collective.asp
Carol Hegedus - "Inner Image and the Collective Experience"
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/hegedus_inner.htm
Sheri Herndon - Independent Media Center
http://www.thegreatstory.org/ev-salon3.html#herndon
Francis Heylighen - Free University of Brussels, Principia Cybernetica Project
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
Peggy Holman - Open Circle Company; The Change Handbook
http://www.opencirclecompany.com
Robert Horn - Knowledge Mapping, Visual Language
http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn
Tom Hurley - TJH Associates, "Archetypal Practices for Collective Wisdom"
http://www.collectivewisdominitiative.org/papers/hurley_archetypal.htm
Wlliiam Isaacs - Dialogos, DIalogue and the Art of Thinking Together
http://www.dialogos.com/aboutus/bill.html
Norman Johnson - Los Alamos National Laboratory, "The Science of Social Diversity"
Sponsored by OSS.Net, Inc. Visit http://www.oss.net/IOP for additional information. 5

http://ishi.lanl.gov/diversity/diversity.htm
Steven Johnson - Emergence
http://www.stevenberlinjohnson.com
Peter and Trudy Johnson-Lenz - Co-Futures, Groupware
http://www.johnson-lenz.com
Kevin Kelly - Out of Control
http://www.kk.org
Jaron Lanier - Virtual Reality, "The Frontier Between Us"
http://www.jaronlanier.com/general.html
Pierre Levy - Collective Intelligence, University of Ottawa
http://www.collectiveintelligence.info
Jean-François Noubel - The Transitioner
http://www.thetransitioner.org
Dave Pollard - How to Save the World
http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/
George Por - Community Intelligence
http://www.community-intelligence.com/blogs/public
Howard Rheingold - Smart Mobs
http://www.rheingold.com
Andrea Saveri - Institute for the Future, The Cooperation Project
http://www.iftf.org/research/technology_cooperation.html
Otto Scharmer - Presence, Theory U
http://www.ottoscharmer.com/menu2.htm
Doug Schuler - Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility's Public Sphere
Project, New Community Networks
http://www.scn.org/commnet/doug.html
Carole Schwinn - CommUnity Transformation Project, Berkana Institute
http://www.swaraj.org/shikshantar/ls3_schwinn.htm
Nova Spivack - EarthWeb, Lucid Ventures, "Collective Intelligence 2.0"
http://novaspivack.typepad.com/nova_spivacks_weblog/2006/01/lets_build_the_.html
Robert David Steele - OSS.Net, The New Craft of Intelligence
http://www.oss.net
James Surowiecki - The Wisdom of Crowd
http://leighbureau.com/speaker.asp?id=285
Finn Voldtofte - World Cafe, Moving the Edge
http://www.worldcafe.dk
Nancy White - Full Circle Associates
http://www.fullcirc.com
Etienne Wenger - Cultivating Communities of Practice
http://www.ewenger.com

IF NOT LISTED ABOVE, APPLY FOR INVITATION TO:

Tom Atlee * The Co-Intelligence Institute * PO Box 493 * Eugene, OR 97440
http://www.co-intelligence.org * http://www.democracyinnovations.org
Tom Atlee's blog http://www.evolvingcollectiveintelligence.org